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Sailor Moon Drops Wiki:Manual of Style
The is continually revising our policies. If you locate any unwritten rule that should be clarified, use the talk page to make a proposal. The Manual of Style ' is a style guide for all Sailor Moon Drops Wiki articles. It establishes the house style, helping editors produce articles with consistent, clear, and precise language, layout, and formatting. The goal is to create an encyclopedia that is easier and more intuitive to use. Consistency in style, wording and formatting promotes clarity and cohesion; this is especially important within an article and across related media. For all this, edits that ignore this manual can be undone without further reason. Article Names, Sections, and Headings Article Names Every article on the Sailor Moon Drops Wiki must have a name, chosen according to the 'Naming Policy of the wiki. The following points are critical to formatting article titles: *'"Title Case":' The first letter of every word in a title must be capitalized, except for articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, prepositions and the "to" in an infinitive. *'Singular form:' Article names should be singular as a general rule, however, some exceptions are accepted, such as grouped items ("Boosters"). *'Avoid definite or indefinite articles:' The definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles except if they are used as the official title. Article Sections For a detailed description of how an article must be written and structured, consult the Layout Guide. As a general guide, all articles should be structured as follows: #Infobox #Quote (if applicable) #Main Sections #Trivia #References #External Links #Categories Headings Heading Format In order to create Sections for an article, the (heading) markup must be used headings, not the ' ('bold') markup. Example: : This is a heading which produces: :This is a heading Using this codes, a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article. Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article. Heading Rules *Unlike Wikipedia and many other wikis, the Sailor Moon Drops Wiki uses the Title Capitalization rules. :#Capitalize from the first to the last word. :#Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions. :#Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions. :#Lowercase the "to" in an infinitive. *Links within headings should only be applied to the full title of the heading, never to a part of it. *Headings must not contain images. Article Bodies Links *'Internal Links:' Any internal article should be linked in every mention in another article's infobox, once upon its first mention in another article's intro, and once upon its first mention in each of other articles' sub-sections. *'Unnecessary Punctuation:' Linking unnecessary punctuation should be avoided in the articles. Letters or words touching the link will be included in the link and should be avoided as well (e.g. use Sailor Moon's instead of Sailor Moon's). *'Do not add external links to other sites without permission.' *'Do not use external links in the body of an article:' External Links must be reserved for the trivia, external links, and references sections. Templates Templates should be added where it is necessary and removed when it is unnecessary. This especially includes the maintenance templates. *Specific wiki templates, such as maintenance templates (Template:Stub, Template:Imageless, Template:Upcoming, must go at the very top of the article, before the article itself starts. This does not apply to maintenance templates dedicated to specific sections (Template:Expand or Template:Rewrite). *Do not add categories to an article that are automatically added by a template. *The prefix "Template:" does not need to be added, as long as you are using these form of brackets ( ). *Infobox templates (such as Template:Event) should always be at the top of the article. Trivia Trivia helps readers learn more facts about the subject that is not originally in the main body of the article. *Avoid opinions (even general opinions), such as "It is widely believed by fans...", as they are not true trivia facts. *Avoid redundancy. Always check to see if the article has the fact before adding. *Decide whether the fact is more relevant in the body or trivia. If the fact is important, or there is a specific section to note it, it should belong in the body of the article. If it is only worth noting, it should belong in the trivia. *Only post '''relevant' information to the subject of the article. If it belongs on a more specific article or another topic, post it on the other article. *If a trivia is related to another trivia, add an indented list below the parent trivia. If that should be the case, however, decide whether the facts are enough to generate their own main body paragraph. Categories Every article must be categorized, adding one of the existing categories that can be applied to it. Consult the Layout Guide and its derived sub-pages in order to consult the categories that should be applied to each article. A list of categories can be found . Due to misunderstandings of the whole purpose of categorizing, we ask that you do not create new categories and add them to articles. Most of the time, if a category does not exist, it is not intended to exist, or there is already an existing category that covers its purpose. Please be sure to ask the Administrators before creating a category. Bold and Italic Fonts Bold When a text is in bold, it appears like this. It can be accomplished by typing three single quotes (') on both ends of a word or phrase. *The name of the subject of the article must be bolded in its first mention. *Alternate names for the subject of the article must be bolded in their first mention. This includes names of titles that redirect to said article. Italics When a text is in italics, it appears like this. It can be accomplished by typing two single quotes (') on both ends of a word or phrase. Using double quotes will not make the word or phrase italicized. *Italics must be used for the titles of works of art and literature (e.g. Sailor Moon Drops). Grammar Grammar is a writer's toolbox. You can't build good sentences without knowing how to use your tools. Since a wiki article must be as clear as possible for all the people reading it, editors must keep close to correct grammar standards to ensure clear communication. Three C's To best achieve a Good Article, writers here generally apply this rule of thumb: language should be clear, consistent, and concise. * Clarity mandates that the language relay its message sharply, unambiguous, and be wholly self-evident. It is important to be as clear and neutral as possible so as to communicate the idea of a sentence effectively to the reader. * Consistency ensures article flow, an important aspect in being clear. The article should be easy to read and predictable, while assuming a reasonable comprehension level. * Concision, or brevity, is the art of using no more words than necessary to convey an idea, though it should not be misunderstood with "leaving out information". It is an important practice when writing so that you do not lose your audience — try to think "get to the point" as much as possible. Capitalization Despite unnecessary capitalization should be avoided, it should not be reserved for proper names only. Links According to the Naming Policy of the Sailor Moon Drops Wiki, every word in an article's name, with few exceptions, must be capitalized. As such, all links must be capitalized even though they describe common names (e.g. "Key Items" instead of "key items") either in the first mention and every other subsequent mention. Capitalization of "The" In general, do not capitalize the definite article in the middle of a sentence. However, some idiomatic exceptions, including most titles of artistic works, should be quoted exactly according to common usage. Spelling and Punctuation This Manual of Style is not intended to be detailed English guide. Knowledge of basic spelling and punctuation is automatically assumed. However, some cases have brought themselves up and are thusly considered noteworthy; and therefore suitable of being listed here. Run-on Sentences Aside from obvious, common rules for using full stops (.) and commas (,) there are some instances where you should review a sentence you wrote in "preview mode" to determine whether or not your sentence is a . Run-on sentences aren't good for several reasons, particularly when two separate thoughts (clauses) are not differentiated from each other thus causing a considerable amount of confusion. Similarly, some sentences are a single thought but are really long. Full stops, or periods, can be used to give the reader a resting spot. However, randomly adding a period or comma in the middle of a sentence does not "fix" a run-on. A clause must still be an independent thought that above all, makes sense. Some users may request peer-review if they are unsure. Formal Vocabulary Formal use of language is mandatory on all encyclopedia articles. *'Contractions:' Uncontracted forms such as Did not or He would are the default in encyclopedic style; don't and he'd are too informal. *'Contested vocabulary:' In encyclopedia articles, avoid such phrases as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in a less-than-encyclopedic tone. Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, unfortunate, etc. This supplies a point of view. Simply state the sourced facts and allow readers to draw their own conclusions. Language and Spelling Though the readers and editors of the Sailor Moon Drops Wiki speak many languages, the RWBY: Amity Arena Wiki uses standard spelling, grammar and punctuation, as it is the variety of English used in the game. However, direct quotes should never be altered, even if they do not use American spelling or the English language at all. Paragraphs and Formatting Inexperienced writers have a tendency towards "run on" paragraphs. Some of these may number dozens of lines and many column inches without a break. This makes the articles difficult to read as everything seems to flow together. It also makes it tough to quickly skim articles for data points. A good paragraph (grammatically speaking) is two to five sentences in length on average. It covers one thought or idea or piece of information. Any time there is a change in the thought, idea, or piece of information, there should also be a paragraph change. When formatting paragraphs, adding an empty line between paragraphs looks better in the articles than the traditional "paragraph indent" on the first line. It makes for a more definite "break point" visually, and allows the reader to more easily see that they are reading a new paragraph at that point. Sourcing The Sailor Moon Drops Wiki does not accept original ideas or fanon, and all writing should be based on reliable sources, and therefore be referenced. Attribution :Adapted from Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki:Manual of Style on Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki. Category:Sailor Moon Drops Wiki Policies Category:Help